by Lee Dixon, OrlandoAdvocate.com
According to FactCheck.org, “Democrats have criticized President Donald Trump for his administration’s response to the new coronavirus, making claims about cuts to public health programs and the silencing of government experts. But they haven’t always gotten their facts right.”
FactCheck went on to say:
- It’s true that the president’s budget proposals have consistently called for reduced funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but Congress hasn’t enacted those cuts. Some Democrats have correctly said Trump “tried” to implement such cuts, while others wrongly claimed he “slashed funding of the CDC” or “cut the funding,” in the words of Democratic presidential candidates Mike Bloomberg and Joe Biden, respectively.
- Biden said Trump “tried to defund the NIH.” Trump did propose cutting NIH funding, but lawmakers instead have enacted increases.
- Multiple Democrats, including Bloomberg and Biden, have criticized Trump for getting rid of a pandemic response position on the National Security Council. The position was eliminated, but it was John Bolton, then-national security adviser, who was directly responsible.
- Biden went too far when he claimed that Trump “hasn’t allowed his scientists to speak” about the coronavirus. It’s true that the government’s top scientists on infectious disease were told to clear their media interviews through a coronavirus task force, but they have since made numerous public appearances.
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